In case you hadn’t noticed, New Zealand’s best humorist has started writing here again every Thursday. (Really, why some newspaper editor doesn’t offer him big money for a regular column is beyond me.) NOT PJ: An Oracular Octopus – N O T P C

Well, this should get you all talking. “New Zealand has been ranked the world's fifth-most-prosperous country, with the highest level of education and civil liberties, by an international think-tank.” And this despite scoring “low” on “religious attendance, 81st in the world, suggesting (says the report) “low levels of access to religious support networks.” Or, perhaps, a healthy lack of interest in mumbo jumbo. The think-tank also judged the country's education system “the best in the world…” Doesn’t say a lot for other places, do it. NZ scores fifth place in world prosperity stakes – N Z H E R A L D

Meanwhile, in America the state is still stealing people’s property to give to friends of the state. “My home is my castle”? Not in the United Police States, it’s not. Eminent Domain Shenanigans – C A T O @ L I B E R T Y

Tom Bowden discusses once of these atrocities: Willets Point, a community in Queens, New York, whose residents and workers are being displaced by eminent domain. The Story of Willets Point – ARC-TV

"The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." ~ Michelangelo

The Onion has a full round-up of the important ballot initiatives in the upcoming US elections. I’m right behind Proposition 11 in California, which would “make it illegal to text while someone is saying something really important to you.” Key Ballot Initiatives – T H E O N I O N

Remember that talk of carbon markets? Of getting “a price” for carbon? That price has now been found. It’s zero. Can someone please tell Nick Smith. Y2Kyoto: We're Winning – S M A L L D E A D A N I M A L S

That sound you hear? It’s the sound of climate scientists looking to their knitting. “A year ago, the climate establishment was on top of the world, masters of the universe. Now we have a situation where there have been major challenges to the reputations of a number of a number of scientists, the IPCC, professional societies, and other institutions of science. The spillover has been a loss of public trust in climate science and some have argued, even more broadly in science. The IPCC and the UNFCCC are regarded by many as impediments to sane and politically viable energy policies. The enviro advocacy groups are abandoning the climate change issue for more promising narratives. In the U.S., the prospect of the Republicans winning the House of Representatives raises the specter of hearings on the integrity of climate science and reductions in federal funding for climate research. “What happened? Did the skeptics and the oil companies and the libertarian think tanks win? No, you lost. All in the name of supporting policies that I don’t think many of you fully understand. What I want is for the climate science community to shift gears and get back to doing science…” The Sound Of Settled Science – S M A L L D E A D A N I M A L S

Here’s an opportunity for some easy activism. In honour of New Zealand Book Month, you can vote for your favourite four books at this website. I wouldn’t want to influence your vote at all … but wouldn’t it be cool if we could get Atlas Shrugged up the lists? [Hat tip FreeMack] Vote for your favourite books – N Z B O O K M O N T H

Australian commentator Judith Sloan looks at the role of Australian unionists in the Hobbit debacle. “Good one, MEAA. I’m not sure NZ trade union officials will be reaching over the ditch when they next need advice. It reminded me of all those times in the 1960s and 1970s, when shop stewards from Scotland were so helpful to Australian industry … not.” Keeping the Hobbit in New Zealand – C A T A L L A X Y F I L E S

“Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has made headlines by questioning the effectiveness of charity and refusing to sign the Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge. ‘The only way to fight poverty is with employment,’ Slim is quoted as saying. ‘Trillions of dollars have been given to charity in the last 50 years, and they don’t solve anything.’” The rich have a right to pursue happiness too – V O I C E S F O R R E A S O N

“So the [Bank of England and the] Federal Reserve are dead-set on creating inflation, and it’s plain to see why. Household debt … now stands so large that paying it down … ain’t gonna happen. Not this side of Paul Krugman joining John Maynard Keynes in that eternal “long run” in the sky. So what’s needed, or so the theory runs, is inflation in prices…” Gold in a Low-Inflation Environment, Part I– M O N E Y M O R N I N G A U S T R A L I A Gold in a Low-Inflation Environment, Part II– M O N E Y M O R N I N G A U S T R A L I A

You might decide this is too cheesy for you, but I really like this series of interview with Fisher & Paykel designers. It used to be said (and I’m sure it’s still true) that in other country’s the most talented engineers and designers would be working in the automotive or electronics industry. In New Zealand,,however where we have neither, they’re working instead producing whiteware for F&P. That’s a pretty good competitive advantage. Passion and Performance – F I S H E R & P A Y K E L

Mercantilism is on the move again—just as it was in the First Great Depression. If the world were to listen to Obama Administration officials—which is exactly what G20 leaders are doing at the East Asian summit in Korea this week—they’ll all soon be bringing in laws to restrict foreign investment. (Yes, Virginia, just like John and Bill have already done.) Speaking on behalf of Americans, Don Boudreaux says, “I await the White House’s explanation for how limitations on investments in the American economy promote Americans’ economic well-being.” The same goes for us, too. ‘a strange marriage of Keynesianism and mercantilism’ - C A T A L L A X Y F I L E S

True, but far from sad: Nick Cave confesses to a weakness for the guitar playing of the legendary Robert Fripp—especially that heard on early Fripp band King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic album. [Hat tip Quote Unquote] Nick Cave: No Pussyfooting Blues – R E L I X . C O M Here’s the only “sing-along” from that 1973 Crimson album: Easy Money.

People Are Awesome: A compilation of awesome people doing incredible things. (Unfortunately one of those things isn’t the music used for compilations like this, so turn your volume down.) [Hat tip Diana Hsieh]

And speaking of both joy and awesome, here’s some Verdi sung by Maria Callas. [Hat tip Boaz the Boor] Awesomeness doesn’t come more joyful.

Or, if you prefer more madness with your awesomeness, here’s some Pathetique/Manfred from Tchaikovsky playing under some insanity by Ken Russell (talk about a tautology). (Moderately NSFW. And it will probably help to understand the scene a little to know that Tchaikovsky, played here by Richard Chamberlain, batted for the other team.)

Thursday, October 28, 2010

NOT PJ: An Oracular Octopus

This week Bernard Darnton investigates spineless creatures, and it isn't a metaphor.

Forget the volcanoes, the mid-term elections, and fraught attempts to increase the number of hours worked by French people. The real reason TV news exists is the animal stories. Some watch for the sports so a sports story about an animal does double duty. Add a dose of psychic power and it’s ratings on a plate. Hence Paul the Octopus.

For those who’ve been living in a cave and therefore have bad tabloid television reception, Paul successfully predicted the outcome of all Germany’s World Cup games, plus the World Cup final.

One News, across developments like a rash, crossed live to the seafood buffet at Valentines, where a pretty blonde girl mawkishly delivered the news of Paul’s demise, looking relevant next to a bowl of dead octopuses.

If you are going to talk about octopuses, do yourself a favour and learn the word “octopodes.” It’s a great word to know coming into the holiday drinking season. Just don’t bugger it up and say “ok-tuh-podes” - it’s “ok-toh-puh-dees.”. Armed with this simple fact and a six pack you can be the star attraction at the end-of-year work barbeque. Compulsory fun will never have been so much fun.

For the full effect, sneer at anyone who says “octopi” and memorise the Wikipedia article about how that word is based on the misapprehension that octopus is a second declension Latin noun, and that “octopus” is Greek, etcetera.

While you’re browsing Wikipedia, marvel at the article on Paul the Octopus himself. Part of the reason that TV news is so dire, stuffed silly with populist drivel like clairvoyant molluscs, is that people have deserted television to spend their free time on more edifying tasks, like writing Wikipedia articles on clairvoyant molluscs.

The article has an info box, explaining Paul’s dual occupations of “Exhibit” and “Psychic Football Pundit,” several photographs, some charts, serious discussions of his career and the possible biases that may have affected his sporting picks, links to other “oracular animals,” and a page of detailed references. The article is similar in size and depth to that on King Richard III of England.

Paul the Octopus’ page also contains speculation on whether or not he was the same octopus that made predictions on games during the 2008 European Championship - a mystery on par with the Princes in the Tower.

While Paul may not have been truly psychic, octopuses - sorry, octopodes - are highly intelligent creatures. They’re not intelligent in the sense that they worked out the laws of thermodynamics but they are, presumably, highly intelligent compared to other molluscs - that is to say, slugs.

Based on this copious neural firepower, octopuses have been classified in English law as honorary mammals. Indeed, octopuses have eight brains - almost as many as the House of Commons, where this stuff gets made up.

Paul and his eight brains will be cremated after a state funeral to be shown live on TV One. Close Up will have an exclusive interview with a grieving relative, and 20/20 this week will investigate claims that Paul had a penis on the end of one of his arms.

“Subsidising” Hobbit enterprise? Sounds like a great deal. [Update 2]

Labour leader Phil Goff isn’t dumb. He just thinks you’re stupid.

He and his lieutenants have been out in force today saying the unions were caught in “a trap” set by Warner Brothers to negotiate a better deal from the New Zealand Government—a deal, he says, that could net them “a subsidy” of several million dollars.

This, I’m afraid, is simply spin masquerading as substance.

First of all, if there were any “trap” into which local unions fell, it was one set by Australian Simon Whipp to help make New Zealand film-making more expensive. Since Warners were all set to film here before Whipp orchestrated a worldwide ban (set to film on the basis of the conditions and exchange rates already in place) all Warners have done now is take advantage of the disruption to see if they can negotiate something better.

It’s been objected that it makes no sense to offer tax breaks to get companies doing business here because there’ll be no revenue gain to the New Zealand Government. Anyone saying this is more dumb than they look. If companies come here and pay no tax at all every single person in New Zealand will still be richer by to the extent of the capital they do invest here, and by the jobs and wealth they create. And the extent they’re not stolen from by the tax man is the greater extent to which they’ll actually be able to create new wealth.

The objection to that I heard voiced this afternoon is that if Warners, or other foreign companies get a big tax break like this, then pretty soon every company thinking about working here will be wanting them.

And why wouldn’t they? Hell, even the numb nuts who object to any tax breaks being offered at all at least recognise it will make the company more profitable.

But since the reason everyone will be wanting them is because it will make them that much more productive (especially if they can re-invest here without fear or new impositions by the grey ones) I don’t see the problem. Instead, I see potential.

What I suggest is that the New Zealand Government actually embrace this idea. Recognise that every company would like to be free of such restrictions, and embrace the idea for everyone, not just for Warners.

Use this as a kick-start for something real.

Start small. Start perhaps by declaring Enterprise Zones wherever Warners work—let’s start with Miramar and Matamata and anywhere else starting with ‘M’ in between—and announce that whatever tax breaks Warners get, and let’s whatever we do make them generous, that same deal would apply to anyone else working there, whether foreigners, NZers or anyone arriving from Mars.

Pretty soon, everyone working in those Enterprise Zones will be as rich as Croesus, and eager to work and re-invest here. (Well, everybody but the tax accountants in Matamata and Miramar, who will have to move away to seek work elsewhere.) And everybody else in New Zealand will be able to reap the benefits of that greater wealth creation, to the extent of the much greater capital that can be re-invested here to create even more wealth.

No-one can claim that the Prime Minister is offering special favours to a foreign company. What he’s doing is offering general relief for any company of whatever origin who wants to take advantage of these Zones to be Enterprising.

And while Helen Kelly objects that NZ would “lose sovereignty” if it accedes to demands from a foreign company to “trash” the employment law that protects NZ workers, it might perhaps be pointed out to her that if these Special Economic Zones were to be set up (with, perhaps, a nomenclatural tip of the hat to the Chinese success story) then no New Zealand worker would be forced to work there—all the rest of New Zealand, with all its present employment restrictions, will still be open to them.

New Zealand workers, however, being no dumber than any others, will realise very quickly one which side of their bread their employment protection is buttered, and by whom, and would undoubtedly begin stampeding very rapidly towards these Zones in search of work.

And who could blame them?

Except for Helen and her ilk who, to remain true to her principles, would have to stand astride their path yelling stop. Which would put all the naysayers like Helen quite evidently on the side opposed to workers making themselves better off.

Which is to say, in the same position as she is now, only more clearly.

UPDATE 2: Here’s some other of the sort of rubbish these Enterprise Zones can nix. Let’s get Chuck into Miramar damn quick:

THE DOCTOR SAYS: Thanks to Rodney Hide’s magnificent achievement at concentrating local government power into the hands of a few, John Key only has to ask one mayor - Len Brown – if he is happy for John to spend $10 million dollars of other people’s money building a flash pub on the Auckland waterfront. Easy for John to realise this pipe-dream with our money; not so easy for a school to build a long-jump pit. Isn’t it wonderful that the government has taken over organizing this footy tournament? Martin Snedden might as well go home now, like a good boy. John Key and the big boys, with an endless supply of our money, will take over now. Suffice to say the Libz Party would not allow one cent of your money to be taken from you to subsidise a month-long party. Discretionary spending on sporting events should remain a matter of personal choice; it’s none of the government’s business.

(NZ Herald) No Hobbit Bidding War – PM – John Key won’t rule out tax breaks and changes to industrial law under urgency but won’t go to ‘extreme lengths,’ such as shooting union leader Helen Kelly, to ensure a film is made locally.

THE DOCTOR SAYS: First sport, now the entertainment industry. Is there any facet of our lives the government doesn’t think it should be overseeing? The one beacon of hope from this debacle is that the National government is contemplating giving someone a tax break! Now if John can just extend that tax relief to some of the serfs; you know: the ones who will watch this movie once it’s made. The Libz Party, of course, would give lower-paid people the same tax breaks as millionaire movie moguls.

THE DOCTOR SAYS: Two little angels desecrated dozens of headstones at the Riverside cemetery in Masterton, then lit a fire at the recycling station that caused damage now estimated at closer to $500,000. I could see the plume of black smoke from my home 7 km north of town. Two 11-year-olds who have been referred to police Youth Aid. And who will probably never have to compensate the insurance companies whose premium holders will end up footing the bill. And who, in all likelihood, would smirk at the victims of this arson if the parties involved were to sit down at a Family Group Conference (or whatever the PC term for such a meeting is now). A lot of people will empathise with retired detective Harry Quinn, who opined recently in the Wairarapa Times-Age that police should be punching criminals in the face rather than using pepper spray, the Taser or firearms. But I have a better idea. It’s called restorative justice. Victim compensation. These kids should be named, and their photographs put on the front page of the Times-Age. They should spend every weekend and school holiday working until age eighteen. When they leave school, they are placed under supervision until the debt is paid off. Their parents can pay the insurance company if they want to, as they bear some of the responsibility for the actions of their offspring, but these kids should have no free weekends until they are adults. Justice being done, and being seen to be done. That’s what it looks like.

When the people fear the government, there is tyranny – when the government fear the people, there is liberty.- attributed to Thomas Jefferson

As much Justice as we can afford

“Justice” Bill Wilson has resigned. A “Justice” who, midst New Zealand’s incestuous legal fraternity, presided over a trial a few years ago in which he clean forgot that one of the lawyers before him was his partner in a business, to whom he owed a significant personal debt.

“Justice” Wilson found in favour of his partner his partner’s client.

“Justice” Bill Wilson has now resigned, but not before being given more than a million dollars of your money to extricate his arse from behind the Supreme Court bench (one-million dollars sure buys a lot of Justice, don’t it) a payout that includes half-a-million dollars of your money to cover the cost of his lawyers.

Actually, that’s mostlylawyer, singular. One Colin Carruthers QC (“QC” standing for Quite Costly), who spent the first first few months after Wilson’s “oversight” came to light lying trying to keep the Justice’s name out of the papers, the next few months offering stories to the media that were patently unbelievable (“my client did not owe the lawyer the debt, M’Lud, and if he does he didn’t remember it”), and has spent these last few months negotiating the terms of this deal—which netted his client sufficient, and more, to get him out of this debt and several more besides.

Terms which, when Mr Quite Frigging Costly first offered them, were even higher. (One-million dollars buys you a lot of Justice, but some want more Justice than others.)

PS: By the way, in the interests of justice being seen to be done (here at this blog at least, if nowhere else), I should tell you that Mrs Colin Carruthers QFC says in the Herald that poor Mr Wilson (as the Un-Justice will be called from November 5th, Bonfire Day) is as pure as the driven. Owed nothing to no-one. Had no conflicts of interest hearing a case from his business partner. None at all. Has been done like a dinner.

Ants like water

Fluid mechanics engineers study similarities in the way ants and fluids act. “"Due to their restlessness and curiosity, they flow … like a viscous liquid.” (One of a several cool fluids videos from the Gallery of Fluid Motion.)

QUOTES OF THE DAY: On the GDP Delusion …

“The whole annual produce of every county is distributed into two great parts; that which is destined to be employed for the purpose of reproduction, and that which is destined to be consumed. That part which is destined to serve for reproduction, naturally, appears again next year, with its profit. This reproduction, with the profit, is naturally the whole produce of the country for that year.”- James Mill

“It is possible to determine in money prices the sum of the income or the wealth of s number of people. But it is nonsensical to reckon national income or national wealth. As soon as we embark upon considerations foreign to the reasoning of a man operating within the pale of a market society, we are no longer helped by monetary calculation. The attempts to determine in money the wealth of a nation or of the whole of mankind are as childish as the mystic efforts to solve the riddles of the universe by worrying about the dimensions of the pyramids of Cheops.”­- Ludwig Von Mises

“The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is a measure of a country's overall economic output...”- Wikipedia

“However, GDP is not meant to be a complete measure of all activity and spending in the economy. GDP measures only final output of goods and services. It deliberately leaves out all intermediate production or goods-in-process... Why? ... To include spending at every stage of production would be ‘double’ and ‘triple' counting....”- Mark Skousen

“Keynesian macroeconomics is literally playing with half a deck. It purports to be a study of the economic system as a whole, yet in ignoring productive expenditure it totally ignores most of the actual spending that takes place in the production of goods and services. It is an economics almost exclusively of consumer spending, not an economics of total spending in the production of goods and services.” - George Reisman

Houses

I know it will seem strange using the words “significant” and “Phil Heatley” in the same sentence without something more pejorative in between, but over the long weekend while everybody was away the housing minister and former credit-card king slipped out a small but significant announcement on TVNZ’s Q+A programme about the houses the govt owns and rents out.

Showing he may perhaps have learned some small amount at the housing conferences he was sent to while in opposition, he announced that the government no longer sees its role as an owner of houses (not before time), and will seek to sell some houses to existing tenants; to transfer others to lobbyists private housing providers (complete with tenants, whose rent the govt taxpayer would still subsidise); and for the remainder will implement rolling reviews to ensure that the 22,000 people, or 32 per cent of state house tenants, who have been in their houses for at least 10 years, are not living in more subsidised house than they need.

It’s not a full solution to divesting govt of a job it shouldn’t even be doing (I look forward to that day with no expectation at all, just as I do to the day it stops subsidising landlords by paying tenants an Accommodation Supplement) but this is a far bolder announcement than I thought the soft-shelled credit-card dodger could countenance.

Commiserations [updated]

My deepest commiserations to the family and boyfriend of Rosemary Ives, and all her colleagues at Wa Ora Montessori School in Lower Hutt. Rosemary was shot over the weekend by an idiot who thought she was a deer—by someone so ignorant he was “hunting” at night in an area populated by campers, shooting illegally from a public road, and was too dumb to bother to check his target before he shot.

As one of the few Montessori primary-trained teachers in the country, Rosemary had a huge future—a future snuffed out by a moron. This was not the way such a dedicated woman should have ended her life.

UPDATE: “This cretin broke about every rule in the book,” says Oswald Bastable. “He should be going to prison for manslaughter, but this being the land of small consequences- it will probably be home detention or a token prison term. “The inevitable NZ knee-jerk reaction is 'tighter or more laws'. None of which would have changed a thing as he broke a bunch of them committing this crime…”

Road toll

The tragedy of this weekend’s road toll is that police were led to pursue a flawed traffic policing policy this holiday weekend on the basis of believing their own headlines.

They were put off by the statistical anomaly of Queens Birthday weekend, when a weekend with no deaths on the roads followed the announcement for that weekend of a traffic policing policy of “zero tolerance” for speed. (A policy that also generated a huge uptick in revenue.)

All the authorities trumpeted that the policy caused the triumph with the road toll. They were so certain they re-imposed the policy this weekend, and re-ran all the ads and notices warning motorists to watch out for policemen watching them.

But they forgot that correlation is not causality.

Trying to convince drivers that speed is everything—that driving a few kph over the speed limit is going to kill us all—and convinced themselves by their own publicity, they succeeded only in fooling themselves, and being surprised this morning at a number they thought they had no right to expect.

Eight people killed is a tragedy. Perhaps some of those drivers might not have died if police over the weekend had focussed on dangerous driving instead of sitting on their bums to collect revenue from motorists driving a few kph over the speed limit.

Monday, October 25, 2010

ECONOMICS FOR REAL PEOPLE: The GDP Delusion

Following popular demand, and as discussed at last week's seminar, we will continue with seminars during the exam period. We will meet again in the engineering school tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7pm to discuss one of economics' most frequently cited statistics - Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is often used to measure economic growth and it forms an important part of most courses in economics while also playing an important role in shaping government policy. However, often we accept such ideas without critical examination and without assessing the extent to which it achieves what it is claimed to do. So in this seminar we will define GDP and show where and how it is applied by economists. But more importantly, we will examine its apparent deficiencies and weaknesses. How is it that in the midst of the current recession, GDP is shown to be rising but that the underlying real-world economic fundamentals continue to deteriorate? Should the concept of GDP be shown to be an empty concept, then the implications and consequences are far reaching for us all. We will discuss what these consequences might be.

Date: Tuesday 26th October Time: 7:00pm Location: Engineering 3402

NB: We are in the same room as last week and at the same time. If you are unsure, the Engineering Building is 20 Symonds St. If you walk through the main doors off Symonds St and straight across the hall, room 3402 is to the right.

Look forward to seeing you there for an interesting and challenging evening.Fraser, Julian and Peter

NPR is America’s equivalent of Radio New Zealand, with everything that implies. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why saying anything as innocuous as “Muslims make me nervous when I fly” in pubilc is for them the equivalent of an act of constructive resignation.

NPR's head, like Progressives everywhere, is caught in the contradictions of subjectivism. Faux liberals that they are, they preach tolerance for everything - because according to their ethical philosophy there are no objective principles of morality - then display intolerance for a remark they regard as "inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices.”

There's no way out of this inconsistency for a faux liberal. It's built into the basic fiber from which the Progressive cloth is cut.

Not content with the NPR head getting herself into hot water by publicly remarking that Williams should've "consulted his psychiatrist" before making the statement, NPR's Ombudsman doubled down on the lunacy.

In a story headlined: "NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled" the lying fence-sitter said:

Juan Williams once again got himself into trouble with NPR for comments he made at his other job, at Fox News.

Right. His firing was "poorly handled" but he really did bring it on himself.

She tripled the foolish factor by adding:

Instead, this latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR's values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.

That's rich. NPR is objective but Fox is biased. Um, NPR proudly upholds Progressive values (a fact favorably noted by over a third of its listeners as one reason they tune in). Those values are entirely the opposite of fact-based and by definition are not objective. Progressivism's core epistemology comes from Pragmatism, whose central premise is there's no such thing as objective anything.

Apart from all that blatant hypocrisy, the firing of Juan Williams shows that contemporary liberals never mean anything they say about black people.

Here, a black liberal gets fired for making a mild comment about Muslims. (One that even moderate Muslims in this country would agree with if they weren't too scared to speak up, and one he even qualified to nullity later in the same program.) But since blacks no longer have it institutionally bad in this country, they've outlived their usefulness to white race hustlers like Vivian Schiller. So, Muslims are now the au courant 'oppressed' group that faux-liberals can drool all over with their faux sympathy.

If it should come to pass someday that this idiotic series of wars finally comes to an end - contrary to Gen. Petraeus' belief — then Muslims will settle into being just another group whose more vocal self-appointed spokesmen yammer about their victimhood. Then there will no doubt be some new convenient 'oppressed' group that so-called liberals can use to undermine individual freedom.

Of course, the real outrage here is not chiefly the depressingly familiar hypocrisy of yet another Progressive, but that NPR - a (partly) taxpayer funded news and editorial radio program - exists in the first place. Let them compete in the open market and they can be as intolerant - and embrace as many contradictions - as they like.

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Recent
Comments

FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: ‘Aftermath’ edition
Ahh King Crimson - one of my fav albums of theirs too but yes it does rate high on the prog rock 'potential girlfriend frightening off' scale
Paul Walker's blog post links to Lawrence White's video on Hayek's should be forced on David Cunliffe & Bill English to watch. I mean they should be tied down to a stool (each) and then play them the video. After these 2 finance minister/spokesperson have done watching the series of videos, then next are the rest of our MPs and Parliamentarians.
The first single-off Grinderman 2 is: "Heathen Child". Check it out here on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKznZUtKntg&has_verified=1
Difficult to believe such an intelligent person with wide range of artistic knowledge would advocate Atlas Shrugged as novel of the year. Really it is in the style of a potboiler with a bit of bodice ripping and very strange pages long monologues (like a Fidel Castro speech. I understand Rand was a Hollywood scriptwriter, but have never seen her credits. As for capital O Objectivism - it is a closed system, that doesn't hold much scrutiny ~ "nonsense on stilts" per Michael ShermerPeter
NOT PJ: An Oracular Octopus
What a great article Bernard, thanks for the humour! :)
Bernard, I keep saying to all and sundry that your columns should be sydicated to every newspaper in the country!
Whoops, make that "syndicated"
Jeff Perren Radio Interview Rescheduled For Oct 29
“The Light” – David Knowles
Is there a chance that Shona Lyon got her idea from David Knowles? If Shona did, then that's called intellectual property theft.
“Subsidising” Hobbit enterprise? Sounds like a great deal. [Update 2]
This is a comment about the claim that this was a "trap" by the studio, and is not related to your other arguments.

The union, or rather it's organisers, acted incompetently. But it is important to realise that NZAE never actually instigated a boycott against "The Hobbit". They released a statement advising their members not to sign any contracts until the union had negotiated a collective agreement. This is quite different from a boycott, as the union would not have taken action against any individual who wish to sign a contract. It was advice only, not an order. Simon Whipp on the other hand, asked the SAG to support the action, and it was they who issued a full no-work order. He did this in the name of the NZAE, but without an actual mandate from it's members. There was no NZAE vote to boycott "The Hobbit". Simon Whipp, and the useful idiots who let him speak for them are to blame for that aspect of this fiasco.

What this means, is that although the union officials acted incompetently, the threat of further industrial action has been overstated, and I think the studio is aware of that. In principle at least, a threat to take filming off-shore never really made sense because the SAG is an international organisation, so the only actors who were not boycotting the movie were actually in NZ. The studio would not have wanted to annoy all the unions who are a part of the guild. Since the union has agreed that there will be no further action for the entirety of the filming, and since the government is looking at altering the law prohibiting collective agreements (or at least changing the definition of a contractor vs employee), there is practically zero chance of further disruption.

..and what that means is that the studio's desire to negotiate for further incentives has very little to do with the union's actions. The amount of money lost while waiting for the dispute to be resolved most likely does not come close to what they're asking for. They've simply taken advantage of the situation. John Key even mentioned that the strong NZ dollar was a factor in the discussions, which is hardly the fault of the union.
"...They've simply taken advantage of the situation...."

Well, yes. Which is precisely what I say above.
So you did :) Thought I'd just add some detail, and justification for the idea that it actually has little to do with the union now.
"But what they’re negotiating isn’t a “subsidy,” it’s a tax break."

Still looks like "picking winners". Why not give the tax break to all firms in NZ by, well ...., cutting taxes, that would a tax break and not picking winners.
One Key to rule them all,

One Key to find them,

One Key to bring them all and in

the darkness bind them

In the Land of Miramar where the Shadows lie.
Ironic for Hellen Kelly to refer to "losing sovereignty" when it was them who started this off initially with an Australian group...
Follow the Chinese model, set up six free trade and investment zones with extensive tax exemptions (let's call them Southland, West Coast, Wairarapa, Taranaki, Gisborne/East Cape and Northland), foreshadow that another four will be created in three year's time. Cut government spending to match, declare the next four zones will be ones that have councils that will also cut spending and taxes to match, and watch them compete for it.

The main centres will end up being last, but in the meantime will be surrounded by areas that are internationally competitive.
A great post PC.Constructive ideas.Well done.

George
The story of Chuck in that video above is exactly what Sarah Palin has been a main theme in her recent speeches when she appeared in rallies that support various GOP candidates for next week's election. The message is:

Get the government out of our way

Palin for President in 2012.
Palin campaigned for TARP in 2008. She doesn’t have a clue.
Simon, humans learn as they grow or as time progresses. What you did when you were a kid, you probably don't approve of them now. Your views had changed and you would be fuck'n lying if you say otherwise.

So, tell me who (in the US) has a clue? I bet that you would fail to come up with one.

Ask Peter Creswell to tell you which politician in the US that has a clue? I bet that he won't & cannot find one. In real life, you live with what you have and not wish for things that you don't have (utopia). That's what reality is all about. Sarah Palin is adapting/learning fast and she's the one (& Ron Paul) that is closest to Libertarian ideologies. Who is 100% Libertarian in Washington? Please find me one. You will struggle.
Simon, watch Sarah Palin's speech here (her Reaganism):

Was Reagan a christian? That's beside the point, but Reagan wasn't really a 100% Libertarian or an Ayn Rand follower either. But what's so special about him? Listen to what Sarah Palin's speech and you get what I mean. Palin is not 100% Libertarian and neither Reagan. They're both christians. Reagan not so strong as Palin, but their political beliefs are pretty much the same. Look up Reagan's public speeches on youtube and you're guaranteed to find and hear most or all of them, quoting God Bless America at the end. Again, that's beside the point whether he ended his every public speech with God Bless America or not, but Palin's beliefs are almost the same as Reagan.
“So, tell me who (in the US) has a clue? I bet that you would fail to come up with one.”

Top flight economic commentators who between have endorsed a dozen or so political candidates over the last 6 months. I am not a Lib but you would find that Robert Wenzel is closest to the Libs. He is very good on the ABCT. Got onto Robert Wenzel via Not PC link here to Bob Murphy. Murphy (who is a Lib Christian) is pretty good but it seems he keeps his cards close to his chest.

There a quite a few others. If you are a Christian Lib I will find the link later to a guy that gave a good Tea party speech where he said he found the bible and it changed his life. He then said he later read another profound book and it also changed his life. The US constitution. He has got a good web site.

Sarah Palin is an opportunist vegetable. The banks need to go into receivership which is why the anti-TARP Tea party originally formed. America wont even start to repair the damage until the banks go under. Hardly anyone in the GOP is talking letting the banks go under.

The Tea Party has been hijacked by the GOP. The GOP is owned by the financial services industry. No one in the GOP is going to stop that clown Ben from printing money. This election will change nothing.
DOWN TO THE DOCTOR’S: Angels, Guardian Angels & Government
As much Justice as we can afford
Except it was an appeal in which the judge was just one of three, not a trial where he was the sole judge. So at least one of the other two judges must have agreed with him on the decision.

And nobody has actually said the decision was wrong. Just that it was not a good look.

And there is also still real disagreement on whether the judge owed the lawyer anything.

And the judge staying on for the entire process would have cost far more than a million dollars, and it would probably have ended up with him being reprimanded because even though the situation looked terrible, it can in no way be seen as misbehaviour or incapacity, the only reasons a High Court judge can be removed.

And I cannot see how Carruthers QC needed to lie in any way, nor that he has lied at all. The points he made are indeed arguable on the facts. You should provide some evidence that Curruthers QC did lie, that being probably the worst thing a lawyer can do in court.

Sorry, in my view your opinion is mostly incorrect.
"And nobody has actually said the decision was wrong."

Not the issue. Issue is whether this justice should have disclosed his relationship, and his debt.

"Just that it was not a good look."

Justice must not only be done. It must be seen to be done.

Except in Wellington.

"...there is also still real disagreement on whether the judge owed the lawyer anything."

The only confusion is in Colin Carruthers's statements.

"And the judge staying on for the entire process would have cost far more than a million dollars..."

Ah yes, he and his Quite Fucking Costly counsel have done us all a favour, haven't they.

"And I cannot see..."

You're anonymous. So any argument relying for its premise on what you can or cannot see, or on what your "view" might or not be, is invalid. Not to mention risible.

Either use a name, or have your views treated with the derision they deserve.
“Aphrodite” – Shona Lyon
Ants like water
QUOTES OF THE DAY: On the GDP Delusion …
Houses
Commiserations [updated]
This is horrible, horrible, horrible.

Hope this isn't too OT. Excuse my ignorance, but... there are deer in New Zealand!? I knew there were all sorts of other mammals introduced, but deer?
Agreed, what an absolute fuckwit the guy who shot her was. Thought she was a deer, what a load of shit and what an absolute knob.
Road toll
Hear hear.

I find it a lot harder to drive safely with my eyes glued to the speedo than when I can use them to concentrate on what's going on outside the vehicle.

Was going to go away this weekend, but stayed home to avoid the stress of watching for cops rather than driving properly.
"Was going to go away this weekend, but stayed home to avoid the stress of watching for cops rather than driving properly."

Seriously? That was the actual reason you didn't go away? Jesus, how sad.

Judge Holden
Not nearly as sad as someone who constantly hangs around where they are not wanted and snipes at people for no reason. Go and find some friends.
Yeah it is. It's way more sad. You're so frightened of perhaps getting a speeding ticket because you can't drive properly that you've turned yourself into a prisoner. That pretty tragic. Take some lessons.

Judge Holden
They just can't get to grips with the random world of individual events." getting a speeding ticket because you can't drive properly "

As with every other comment you've ever made at this blog, this just shows how pig ignorant you are Judge.
Are the mobile tax collectors going to try a >14kph leniency policy next holiday weekend?

If not, why not?
"but stayed home to avoid the stress of watching for cops rather than driving properly."

Please tell me your not serious? If not that is the most pathetic and strangely hillarious thing I have read on this blog.

Speedos do not show your true speed, they are always calibrated to show a greater speed sometimes even up to 10kmh greater than actual. But seriously if you can't maintain a constant speed of 100kmh give or take 5kmh I'm actually kinda concerned as to your driving ability.

And I hardly think they were getting any revenue from giving out 30 dollar tickets (if indeed they gave out many or any) when taking into account admin and manhour costs, the revenue gathering argument simply doesn't work here.

The obvious logic behind reducing the speed limit on days of heavy traffic is to get vehicles travelling at roughly the same speed and to be content doing so, rather than engaging in risky overtaking moves. If say we had a 120kmh speed, drivers would simply not be content to sit behind a boat and trailer doing 95kmh. Impatience, road rage and dangerous overtaking is the result (which we used to to see allot of a decade or so ago).

Did we even see any 'normal' fatalities we normally see on these holidays?, ie head on collisions, loss of control etc by your average holiday commuter.

My understanding is that they were almost all drunks or young drivers in remote areas and took out themselves and passengers.

P.S we went away and had a lovely weekend up North. Traffic was well behaved, people were content just to cruise between 95-105 kmh in the flow of traffic and only saw one idiot on the road in a 6 hour total commute. Hope you enjoyed staying at home.
A rather more pathetic thing would be the sad fact that the only "test" of one's "driving ability" seems to be whether you can slavishly concentrate on keeping your speed within an unnaturally narrow band, rather than any of the other vastly more important tasks like staying on the road, knowing whats going on around you, being considerate to others, etc.

In a modern car where other countries let you safely travel at significantly over the NZ speed limit, and where a 4km/hr increase in speed can be achieved in a fraction of a second with the tiniest nudge of the accelerator, the only justification of an absurd lowering of the tolerance is the boorish power lust of the police and their masters.

Maybe you should be "concerned about the driving ability" of those people who can't manage to drive at open road speeds without crashing or can't be bothered to even pay enough attention to the job at hand to get to that speed in the first place.
I laughed on friday when i heard the police were going down this track again looking at that the forecast. As Studies oversea have shown there are more accidents during good weather as a norm. So Queens BDay was totally crap weather and Labour day was great weather. Well i be damn international studies are correct.
Lets get this bullshit in perspective, shall we?

There are approx 4.2 million private cars in New Zealand (about the same as the population) and if only 15% of these made a journey of 100kms during the Labour Weekend which they wouldn't have otherwise taken, then this means that an additional 64,500,000kms were travelled. If each car carried an average of 2 people then this makes a total number of ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE MILLION EXTRA PEOPLE/KMS TRAVELLED.

Only about 9% of our roads are motorways.... so there were approximately 120 MILLION people/kms of cars hurtling towards each other at combined collision speeds of 120 kph and narrowly missing each other as they approached each other on one and two-lane highways.

And out of all this, EIGHT people were killed!!! Just EIGHT! This is a chance of 0.0000067% of being killed per km travelled,, or, to raise the odds dramatically, a chance of 0.00063% per person/journey!!!

Fuck me.... this Labour Weekend travelling is a HUGE risk isn't it?? Geez... no wonder everybody is shitting themself about the road toll.
Twr, I toyed with the idea of going to the races at Woodville but couldn't face the lovely long straight roads north of Masterton with my eyes glued to the speedo. It is idiocy to have to travel at 100kmph on lengthy stretches of perfectly good road, in perfectly good driving conditions. But we are deigned too stupid to exercise our own judgement in the matter. This approach is so depressingly analogous of too many other laws in this country, a fact which I do not want to be constantly reminded of.

I also notice that those calling for the blood alcohol level to drop hold up European countries as a standard, yet no-one is calling for the speed limits to increase to match those of many continental countries.
"where other countries let you safely travel at significantly over the NZ speed limit,"

With far superior roads, large motorways and a superior skill set and mentality when it comes to driving that we simply don't have here.

I would have no problem with a 120kmh limit on dual carriageways or motorways.

However what would happen if you imposed such a limit on say SH1 between Auckland and Whangarei. You would have a large proportion of slower vehicles doing 90-100kmh, combined with a significant proportion of drivers who want to travel at 120-130kmh. Combine that with few passing lanes and limited safe passing opportunities and you have a recipe for disaster.
It doesn't do much for the motorists' skill set when you have hysterical ads pumping out lies at you constantly that claim that 5km/hr over the speed limit equals instant death, and by inference, the speed limit or anything under it is automatically safe.

I think I could probably manage 80mph on SH1 around Foxton without spontaneously exploding in a cloud of evilness, however I'm forced instead into a catatonic trance and reliance on cruise control to avoid being pounced on by the local "safety" nazi.

Transit doesn't seem to have any trouble imposing five different limits within a 1km stretch of road when they feel like it, so I'm sure they could manage it north of Auckland.

Incidentally, this "tolerance" nonsense is positively dangerous when you have to spend anything up to ten times as long exposed to danger to pass someone as you'd have to if there actually was some appreciation of what the police were meant to be there for.
The weather was crap over Queen's Birthday so everybody stayed home. The weather this weekend was good so everyone was on the roads. That explains pretty much all of it.This comment has been removed by the author.
Radar detectors are good - if you get the ones that cost about $700. They have a range of up to 1km.

The Right side of the aisle has always loved its' authority figures - the police, courts, military to name but a few. Pleased to see some folk are looking at these things with a more jaundiced eye.
Hi Peter,

You might find this article interesting :

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer213.html

xx

Sandrine.
I wish people would stop complaining about New Zealand roads.Considering the amount of traffic we have on them, New Zealand roads are fantastic compared to Britain.I am back in the UK for the time being and have just bought a Jaguar x-type. Thanks to the high price of tax and petrol, gas guzzlers are cheap here, so i picked up a 2004 model for less than the press of s shopping trolley.Anyway, here the country roads are very narrow and twisted, and quite busy too.There are bloody roundabouts everywhere. The main A roads are so busy that speeding is but a pipe dream and turning right is a pain int eh bum too.Safe high speed cruising is only possible on the motorways. The M1 east and north of leeds, plus the adjoining A 1 (M)) are beautiful but watch out for the traffic cameras.

Back to New Zealand. i do feel we are capable on higher speeds than 100kmh on many stretches of our highways. Yes, SH1 near Foxton is a beautiful straight road, as it is further north, past Bulls. But SH1 between Waiwera and Northland is not recommended for high speed cruising and on the good bit just north of the Brynderwyns, do watch out. I am told that is the most profitable stretch of roads for the local constabulary.
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